Although Yun Yiheng's words sounded very rude, what he said was the truth.
Western musical instruments used the five-line staff. And as Anonymous, Shen Ruojing would definitely know how to read it. On the other hand, many eastern musical instruments used numbered musical notation, so anyone who had some musical background would be able to understand it as well.
Most of the music scores for the zither today use numbered musical notation.
However, the score for this piece...was from a sole copy of a book. People who didn't study zither extensively wouldn't be able to understand it. Moreover, the tablature notation used in this zither score was passed down from the Tang dynasty.
It used some strange symbols and characters, differentiated between the right and left hand, and looked extremely complicated. Ordinary people would probably be unable to understand it.
Yun Yiheng's major was in zither and he specially studied these.
